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Sunday, June 22, 2014

Early on Thursday Cal-Fire was out in force. Above is just a few of the firefighters gathering for the training. They all got instructions and then headed out into the meadow. They actually walked the perimeter of the meadow, where the trees are.

On Wednesday they burned areas to create fire breaks. That way when they do the training it is more controlled.

That took a while and then they had to get repositioned because the wind changed. They then started to do the burn. Evidently there are different types of grasses out there. Not all would be burned. There is an invasive Mustard plant that retains moisture so if it isn’t dry enough to kill the seeds they will do it at another time.

There’s always someone watching and directing.

One of the firefighters gave me a mini lesson on what and how it all happens. He also shared with me about a lucky break they had. It seems that when they were preparing, one of the engines went over an area where a Mallard Duck was flushed out of the grass and then went right back. They had luckily missed the nest and then partitioned off a 100 foot buffer around the nest linking it with an unburned area to protect it.

Of course there was one of the Rangers on hand to observe.

I tried to get some shots with flames. It was hard to get because they kept the flames low and controlled. The picture on the left, below shows the fire, but it is actually behind him. There was a lot of smoke.

The two pictures blow are taken from one of the campsites up the hill, before and after the burn.

These are later when they were done, although there was someone to watch out for the hot spots.

These fellows were going over the entire exercise.

The Crows were having a field day eating all the barbequed grasshoppers.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

It’s chilly in the morning when we go to work. Angel has a sweatshirt under the towel. She wants to come with me and sits there in the cart when I go into the restrooms to clean them or when I clean the CG sites.

Last week someone stole the showerheads out of both restrooms in one of the CGs and one night someone broke into the firewood locker. They took only one box and left a 5 dollar bill inside. (the wood is $7) It had to be really late because the rangers go around after 10:30 pm. More reports had to be made.

Last weekend, Ted came for a visit and we took a trip over to the coast. I wanted to check out Toro Park in Monterey County. I have put my application in there for the winter (2014 /2015). It was a good thing that I went, because the phone numbers on the application were wrong. I got a call today from them to offer the position for the winter. Yea!!!!

I forgot to take pictures. After we left the park, we went to Monterey for breakfast at The Victorian Corner, where Ted had Steak and Eggs and I had Eggs Benedict. Both were just okay. When we left San Jose we stopped for coffee and the coffee was horrible, so Ted decided to go to Santa Cruz for some GOOD coffee at Verve. That’s were they actually roast the coffee. It was good.

Earlier this week on my days off I had a doctor’s appointment for pain management. I will have to go back for him to do some nerve testing. Maybe I will finally figure out why my arm is still swollen an aches.

I also bought a drip pan for under my car. My transmission fluid has been leaking and I need to keep it off of the drive. I’m hoping to get a different car that I can tow flat behind “My Spot II” in a couple of months. I let the guys in maintenance know that I had the pan and kitty litter and while I was doing my rounds, they put it under the car for me. They’re great!

Below are a few of the pictures that I took when I went I picked up trash around Grant Lake. Those are Turkey Vultures with cattle in he background. There are ranchers that have grazing rights in the park. Don’t forget, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Today Cal Fire did a prescribed burn in the park and I took lots of pictures, but I will do another post with those.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

If you look closely or enlarge the picture below, you can see “My Spot II”. It’s on the left through the trees. That’s the closest restroom on the right.

Just doing the same routine most every day, however, for the last 2 weeks I have actually not worked at all on my days off. I slept in if you want to call getting up at 6:30 am sleeping in. That’s when I usually go down the hill to run errands.

Below I got pictures of a couple of deer wandering through my campsite. Of course it was Angel that let me know that they were there with her soft growl. She rarely barks at the wildlife. There’s the tree squirrel, all the birds, especially the crows and turkeys and of course the lizards.

Remember the hiking boots that I mentioned awhile back? I set the pair of them on this stool, if you look close there is a little wren looking a bit confused. The pair of them had started to build a nest in both boots. I guess that I’m a poor sport, by removing all their efforts from the boots and removing them where they couldn’t find them. I suppose that they have some where else to build their nest. It would have been cool to watch what transpired if I had left them alone.

Lately I have been getting up to fog. Below is the difference a couple of hours makes. It doesn’t take long for it to burn off to sun shiny weather and an increase in the temperature. It is currently 80* at 5:30pm on Saturday.

Yesterday while cleaning the restrooms I found this lizard, There are a lot of them, all over the park. This one was dead, When I flipped it over, I was surprised to see the beautifully brilliant blue on it’s belly.

It is interesting to just listen to nature, There was a sudden sound and flurry of something in the grass just off the path next to my site. Then there was the distressed sound of (I think) a turkey, kind of like a short gobble every couple of seconds and then after a few minutes, nothing. I suspect that it might have been a bobcat. When I walked over near the path, I saw another turkey waking back and forth looking for, maybe her mate? It’s just part of the life cycle. Sad, but still interesting.

In my last post I mentioned the “Kamikaze” quail. The very next day while on one of the runs through the park, one of them misjudged it’s flight and flew into my cart, behind my head and out the other side of the cart. It landed on the pavement. When I came pack that way it was gone, It had either recovered or was someone’s dinner. There was also a baby ground squirrel on the road. It wasn’t long before it was gone too. One of the rangers told me that the adult squirrels will eat their young. Ohhhhh!! That’s TMI !!!!